Rotisserie and barbecue cooking using skewers are popular means to cook meat products, particularly chicken. The meat product is cooked without substantial desiccation. Since the surface of the meat product is quickly seared to seal in meat juices, the tastiness and juiciness of the meat product are enhanced.
Apparatus to effect rotisserie cooking have been in use in the art. Such types of apparatus typically comprise a grilling space defined by metal walls and one or more access doors provided with a window of heat-resistant glass, motor-driven rotatable spits or similar means for supporting the meat to be cooked arranged outside said space, and heating means for heating said meat to the required temperature, said heating means being formed by, generally electric heat radiation or similar gas elements which are positioned in such a manner that the meat rotated on the spits is cooked thereby, while rotating said spits.
Such apparatus can be used for cooking larger pieces of meat such as whole chickens. However, there are several disadvantage which have been associated with the preparation of the meat products to be cooked in this manner and, particularly, skewering the product.
Typically, the meat product needs to be prepared for cooking, skewered, seasoned and then moved to the oven area. Each of these steps needed to be carried out in a separate area of the kitchen which needed to be cleaned after every instance to avoid contamination of any subsequent product set down in the area. The rotisserie ovens in the quick serve restaurant industry utilize relatively long skewers of approximately 28" in length rendering it difficult to place meat products therein without anchoring one end of the skewer or utilizing two persons. Conventional kitchen equipment often is not equipped to anchor such skewers and, further, not capable of sustaining the forces associated with skewering products.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,553 a machine for the automatic production of meat products threaded onto skewers is disclosed. However, the typical quick serve restaurant has a crowded kitchen which does not have the capacity for such automation. Furthermore, the automation of one task, skewering, does not resolve the problems of contaminating surfaces with meat juices and preparing the meat product for skewering and cooking as well as skewering meat products without automation.